Middle School Reading!

1. Tangerine by Edward Bloor
2. The Outsiders by Hinton
3. For read alouds, try any of John H. Ritter's chapter books (Under the Baseball Moon, Over the Wall are two).
4. There is also a Listmania! list of best books for Junior High Kids that you can pull from at http://www.amazon.com/Best-Books-Junior-High-Kids/lm/2SRS7ETC5YZR7
5. With the proper preparation (so they don’t think they are getting little kid books read to them), try picture books - they aren’t just for little kids anymore, especially when teaching in the various content areas (http://www.funlessonplans.com/democratic-values/picture-books-for-big-kids.htm).
6. There are two articles on educationworld (http://www.education-world.com/a_curr/curr081.shtml and http://www.education-world.com/a_curr/columnists/miller/miller007.shtml  this one includes some professional development suggestions too.
7. Jim Trelease has just come out with a new edition of the Read Aloud Handbook which might be good for your teacher discussion (outside the box).
8. Also Mary Lee Hahn has a book called Reconsidering the Read Aloud (from Stenhouse, 2002).
9. The Watson’s Go To Birmingham—1963 by Christopher Paul Curtis
10. Love that Dog by Sharon Creech
11. Nancy Keane also has a great list on her website of books to read aloud in middle school (http://www.nancykeane.com/).